“Pray that God would help me break the cycle of addiction,” she replied. Christina was sitting on the street corner of a Schnucks supermarket when my friends and I met her. We were volunteering with an Unhoused Ministry to hand out Ziploc bags of snacks, water, socks and masks to unhoused individuals. Christina shared that she was hungry,…
“You stay completely apolitical and non-ideological. I’m a scientist and I’m a physician. And that’s it.” Anthony Fauci, the scientist-turned-public health activist who has run the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the past 36 years, shared his wisdom on how to function in a highly politicized and polarized nation. Fauci has worked…
What once was touted as the great equalizer—the coronavirus—quickly brought to light the deep-rooted disparities in our society and renewed a push toward change. Based on the discrepant consequences of COVID-19 across demographics, there exists an underlying inequality within our healthcare system. Long after COVID-19 becomes a headline of the past, certain groups of people…
Tumor. Cancer. Surgery. Disorder. Disease. Treatment. Doctors have the responsibility to tell their patients “bad news” all the time. The “news” is not some abstract story that can be simply watched out of boredom or skimmed over with glazed eyes. The “news” is about one’s future of living or dying. Far more difficult to swallow…
For hundreds of years, people have looked to animals and plants to explain elusive human phenomena. Aesop’s fables and ancient texts highlight the extent of this human-animal relationship. In these didactic stories, the whimsical portrayal of animals and plants is used to illustrate and concretize human action. Aside from human imagination, animals and plants have…
Throughout history, humans have been asking questions about thinking and behavior. The phenomena that people aimed to study greatly surpassed the verbiage and knowledge that was available. This disconnect between what humans want to know and actual understanding drives progress. In light of the brain’s amazing capabilities, endless supply of mysteries and intricate complexities, the…
An effective democracy calls for the active participation of its citizens through voting. Regardless of socioeconomic class, gender, race, or religion, every citizen of the United States, above the age of eighteen, has the right to vote. Nevertheless, only about fifty to sixty percent of eligible voters turn up at the polls in presidential elections,…
Friends and family members of Alzheimer’s patients endure the heartbreak of watching a loved one lose their memory and independence. As the United States demographic becomes increasingly top heavy—with the portion of the population over 65 years estimated to more than double by 2060—the need for Alzheimer’s disease research is immediate. The suffering that Alzheimer’s…